Magnet Schools Seeking Suburban Students

In a bid to lure suburban students, the Hartford public school system is offering to pay tuition and transportation costs for suburban students who agree to attend certain city magnet schools.

The schools involved are Breakthrough Charter School, Sports Science Academy and the new middle school at the Learning Corridor; the middle school is already licensed as a magnet school, while the others are being considered for the designation.

Diane Ullman, assistant executive director of the Capitol Region Education Council, said several suburban school systems have already agreed to send students to the three schools. Ullman made a presentation to the Manchester Board of Education this week, and Manchester Superintendent Alan Beitman said the system seems likely to accept ``an offer that's a win-win situation.''

``To me, it's a simple answer. It doesn't hurt us if we do it,'' Beitman said. ``A few of our parents work in Hartford and they want to send their kids to Hartford. This would work for them.''

The Capitol Region Education Council has been hired by Hartford to help recruit suburban districts to participate in the magnet programs.

In November, Ullman invited Manchester school officials to participate in the soon-to-be-expanded East Hartford-Glastonbury Magnet School, which is run by CREC. But it would have cost the district about $2,000 for each student it sent there, so officials declined the offer. They were reluctant to sign up, Beitman said, because there was no guarantee the tuition would not increase.

This time, however, the offer was more enticing, he said.

Manchester and other suburban districts can now send their students to all three Hartford schools.

Unlike other area magnet schools that are run by CREC, the three schools would be controlled by the Hartford public school system, similar to New Haven's ``landlord magnet'' model. This system allows Hartford to absorb tuition and transportation costs usually borne by parents and the towns that send students.

That's because the state gives each landlord magnet school about $5,200 for each suburban student and an additional $1,200 subsidy for each Hartford student enrolled in the magnet schools. Hartford also taps into other state money available to it, said Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

The Breakthrough school, which encompasses pre-kindergarten through Grade 8 and focuses on character education, already has enough out-of-district students to qualify as an interdistrict magnet school. The school, which already gained legislative approval for $19 million for new construction, is revising its request to $28 million to make room for 333 students, 100 more than originally projected. It now has 120 students.

Sports Science Academy, a high school that prepares students for careers in sports-related marketing, education, retail, law, medicine and journalism, is in the old Morse School of Business. The school has 31 suburban students among the 311 now enrolled.

The middle school at the Learning Corridor opened in the fall of 2000. It has about 190 students.

Gail Rowe, assistant director for Hartford magnet schools, said the city is looking to eventually have about 20 percent of enrollment consist of suburban students. The magnet program is one response to the Sheff vs. O'Neill desegregation lawsuit, which seeks to ease racial and socioeconomic isolation in the city schools.

The Sheff vs. O'Neill plaintiffs will return to court in April to argue that the state is not doing enough to desegregate Hartford schools.